Caps’ Alexeyev injured on illegal check to the head by Oleksiak originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
WASHINGTON — Capitals defenseman Alex Alexeyev suffered an upper-body injury during the second period of their 4-1 win over the Seattle Kraken on an illegal check to the head by defenseman Jamie Oleksiak. He left the game immediately following the hit and didn’t return.
Alexeyev, 23, was just a few minutes removed from scoring his first career NHL point when Oleksiak hit him up high with his elbow. He went down hard and stayed on the ice for a few minutes until being helped up by trainers. Alexeyev held a towel to his face to stop bleeding as he skated off and headed down the tunnel.
“I saw him after the game,” head coach Peter Laviolette said in his postgame press conference. “We’ll evaluate him in the morning and go from there.”
The Capitals’ blue line was already down both Martin Fehervary (upper body) and Dmitry Orlov (lower body). Fehervary hit Injured Reserve on Saturday after exiting Washington’s loss to the Calgary Flames in the second period while Orlov missed his 16th consecutive game Friday.
Ten different players have landed on IR this season including eight who remained sidelined heading into the weekend. Alexeyev began the year on Long-Term IR due to a shoulder injury he suffered last offseason.
“It’s been one of those years,” Laviolette said. “It’s not like we went a man down and we’re trying to figure out what to do. The guys have responded to a little bit of adversity the entire season so it was nice to see them pick that up.”
